What to read this Christmas

What even counts as a Christmas novel? It depends on your location.

Hollywood movies and TV shows have programmed most of you to associate Christmas with snow. But we don’t have snow in Uganda unless you live on the peak of Mt Rwenzori. 

We have Christmas trees and food and extensive travel to rural areas. However, those parameters are severely restrictive because most medieval fantasy emphasizes extensive travel and food. And I suppose the forests and meadows are fitting alternatives to Christmas trees.

So, we might as well stick to the traditional picture of Christmas that Hollywood has painted in your minds. What can you read this December to nurture that conventional Christmas feeling?

Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson came out on December 6. No, it doesn’t qualify as a Christmas novel. That said, it is the biggest fantasy fiction release of the year, and Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive novels typically exceed the 1000-page mark. So, if you have multiple weeks off from work during the Christmas break, you could not ask for a better opportunity to finish the first major arc of the Stormlight Archive series.

The novel covers the ten-day contest of champions between the Knights Radiant and Odium’s forces. Sanderson will take a break from the Stormlight Archive after Wind and Truth to focus on other series. As for my actual Christmas-themed picks, you can’t go wrong with The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, by C.S. Lewis, in which the Pevensie children are whisked away on a magical adventure to Narnia, a land gripped by endless winter.

If you have ever doubted Lewis’ abilities as a writer (as so many readers do, often deriding the Narnia books as low-quality fiction), read A Grief Observed, a memoir in which Lewis grapples with the death of his wife. His mastery of the English language will astound you as he carefully articulates his anguish and confusion during that dark period.

NOS4A2 by Joe Hill is not your typical Christmas novel. It does not summon those warm and fuzzy emotions readers associate with the holiday. But you know what? Horror fans are people too, even though they typically gravitate towards the darker aspects of fiction.

Also, NOS4A2 is as Christmas-themed as they come, centered on a house with a door to a world called Christmasland, only accessible to the psychotic Charles Manx. Renowned for taking his young victims on sinister trips to Christmasland, Manx becomes the target of an emotionally scarred adult who wants to stop the murderer.

Here is a fun fact. Joe Hill is Stephen King’s son. Hill peppers this book with Easter eggs that Stephen King fans will appreciate. Shifting gears sharply, The Bishop’s Wife by Robert Nathan has two live-action adaptations, one from 1947 (Carrie Grant, David Niven, Loretta Young) and another from 1996 (The Preacher’s Wife, starring Denzel Washington and Whitney Houston).

The novel came out in 1928 and follows Henry Brougham, a Bishop in a passionless marriage who prays for help in his quest to build a grand cathedral only to receive an angelic visitation as an answer.

Micheal, the angel in question, proves to be Henry’s worst nightmare because the love he exudes ignites unexpected emotions in everyone he meets, including Julia, Henry’s wife. Some Kind of Fairy Tale by Graham Joyce is darker than the title or the cover art suggests.

Peter Martin makes a terrifying discovery after visiting his parent’s house on Christmas: his sister Tara, who disappeared twenty years ago. Previously presumed dead, Tara’s re-emergence causes a stir, partly because the 15-year-old has not aged.

Tara insists that she was only gone six months. During that time, she went on an epic quest in a fantastical realm. She returns to a world that moved on, including elderly parents, a brother with a wife and children, and a boyfriend enslaved by drugs. Happy reading.

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